


5 Times the Annex Played Cupid, 1 Time Jenkins Tried.

by littlelostcat



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: 5 Time + 1, Budding Romance, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3163769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlelostcat/pseuds/littlelostcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick 5 Times story -- 5 times the Annex encouraged Cassandra/Jake, and the 1 time Jenkins flat out pushed them together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Times the Annex Played Cupid, 1 Time Jenkins Tried.

He is old, and when asked (for the seventeenth time _that day, Mr. Jones_ ) he replies the same as always, “Old enough.” But that isn’t the point, the point is that he has seen Librarians rise and fall; he has seen Guardians die in the line of their charge and he has seen them outlive their Librarians — if you can call their lives after ‘living.’ He has seen hate between the pairs, and love. He has seen mutual admiration and begrudging trust; he has seen sweet friendship and business etiquette.

But he has never seen multiple Librarians, even Librarians-in-Training. 

He has never seen two Librarians start to fall in love. And that has become a challenge for him because he doesn’t know how to help them. Or stop them. He doesn’t think it’s even allowed. He doesn’t know what needs to be done.

And the worst part is that the Annex seems to enjoy toying with him and encouraging them.

 

—— 1 ——

 

He didn’t understand why these Librarians-in-Training needed to pull _every_ book when they had a new case and then just leave them on the tables. The Annex may reset itself to the Librarian’s preferences, yes, but that didn’t mean it was a self-cleaning entity. And his job was to maintain the Annex (and its belongings), not clean up after a bunch of rogue amateurs. 

Even if they got better and more unified with each case. ‘Adventure,’ as Ezekiel called them. Cleaning up after them wasn’t his job.

He jogged up the stairs with a stack of books in one hand and the statuette of Hathor in the other, then skidded to a stop when he rounded the fourth column. One book slipped from the pile and crashed to the floor, but didn’t bend to grab it. Instead, he stared. 

At the nook. 

The nook that up until two hours ago had not existed. He knew this because he’d been up here two hours ago and there had been a wall. A very sturdy, very solid wall. Now there was a nook. With a shelf, and a softly lit lamp, and two sleeping LIT’s huddled together on the floor. Cassandra’s head was nestled against Jake’s shoulder, his arm loosely wrapped around her waist, and her legs bent over his. They were even breathing in tandem, for God’s sake. 

A statue of Ra, which he was positive had been lost, sat on the shelf in the nook as if waiting for its mate. Jenkins sighed, looked around the apparent new addition to his Annex, then set Hathor on the other side of the lamp. He turned the light off, looked at the sleeping Librarians and shook his head. 

He could accept change, even if it was a challenging one, but he didn’t need to like it. 

 

—— 2 ——

 

Days off were rare. The Librarians were always eager for another case and Eve was eager to step through the portal doors, hopeful to find Flynn on the other side. But every now and then she needed a day off and when Eve took a day off, they all took a day off. 

Ezekiel usually took the day to plan a heist that he “wouldn’t actually try, as if.” Eve always left and enjoyed the city “like a normal person would,” even when it was wet and snowing like now. Cassandra would leave then come back a short time later and end up standing (or sitting) beside Jake, listening as he told her about whatever piece he was looking at. And Jake usually stayed in the Annex, staring at and studying difference paintings that the Library brought out for him. 

And, Jenkins was sure that was what it was. The paintings appeared, sometimes with their frames slightly shinier than the last time he’d seem them. He was sure Jake didn’t know how to call for the new paintings, and he was positive Jake didn’t know the Library had Antoine Watteau’s “Winter” in her depths. 

“It shouldn’t be here,” he heard Jake whisper today.

“Where should it be?” Cassandra asked.

“This painting shouldn’t be here,” Jake repeated, sounding angry and slightly unsure. 

“Why?” he almost didn’t hear Cassandra ask. Jenkins took a breath and peaked through the slim crack between the door and the wall, saw Cassandra’s hand link with Jake’s and saw Jake squeeze it before taking a step forward and pointing with his free hand.

“Because this is Watteau’s ‘Spring.’ It was destroyed. Years ago.”

“Tell me.”

Jenkins turned away and listened as Jake told Cassandra about the painting’s history; how it was lost, found, then destroyed by a fire. He rolled his eyes when Cassandra let out a sigh and said that spring was her favorite time of year. 

Of course the Annex would bring them her favorite season.

—— 3 —— 

“Orange.”

“Orange and what?”

“Orange and sunshine, and fresh grass.”

“And?”

“And ice cream,” Cassandra giggled, “soft and orange. Like summer.”

Jenkins stopped and considered turning away, he was in the doorway between the main room of the Annex and the hallway when he caught Jake’s eye. He started to back away then stopped when his heel clicked and Jake shook his head in a silent _no_.

“Summer and what, Cas?” Jake asked, looking at Cassandra again and keeping his eyes locked on hers.

Jenkins could see her cheeks round from where he stood and could see that she was smiling. “Summer and Momma folding the sheets, singing while I eat ice cream and hum with her.”

Jake slid one his hands from her elbow to her waist, rested his forehead against hers and Jenkins thought he heard Jake ask “what then” before he turned and left. 

At some point the line had been drawn, Jacob Stone was Cassandra’s rock and Jenkins didn’t need to witness that rock giving her something to lean on when her mind and tumor took over. 

—— 4 ——

The fourth time Jenkins gets the hint and it’s about as subtle as the time the Queen Mary tried to lay anchor inside the Annex. 

There are flowers and flower petals everywhere — even inside some of the books and he _knows_ who is going to have to clean those up and it won’t be the Librarians. He is standing, in shock and annoyed awe, with Col. Baird as Cassandra skids to a halt and twirls, causing a flurry of rose and daisy petals to spin around her.

“It’s beautiful!” she says as she spins again and grabs a handful of petals that come flying up. 

“Beautiful enough for you to help with the clean up,” he snaps and starts to go for the broom.

“Hold up,” Baird says, her fingers wrapped around his wrist, “What is this? Is there something wrong with the Annex? Something with flowers?”

Jenkins looks over, Jake and Ezekiel have joined Ms. Cillian and are watching her pick up one of each type of flower. She already has a dozen different colors and types in one hand. “Nothing is wrong.”

“So,” Eve pauses and waves her hand towards the LITs, “This is a normal event for the Annex? Because it sure wasn’t for the Library.”

“Yes, well, the Annex is slightly more amiable to people’s attitudes and feelings. It’s smaller,” he huffs and pulls his wrist free. “There’s a reason the Librarians and Guardians don’t come to this part of the Library — too many emotions in too little space.”

“So, someone wants flowers?”

He looks at Cassandra again and shakes his head, “Someone wanted flowers.”

He walks to the closet, closes his eyes when an small avalanche of flower petals falls out, and grabs his broom. He looks around to make sure he’s alone, catches sight of Baird, Stone and Jones starting to kick and push piles of petals into the corners of the room. He sees Jake watching Cassandra dance and laugh as more petals rain from seemingly nowhere above them, and he sees the almost smile on Jake’s face. 

“You know, there are easier ways to make your Librarians happy,” he whispers, then slams the closet door — broom in hand — as another spread of ambrosia, gardenias, and carnations fall. 

—— 5 ——

Sometimes the Annex just flat-out played Cupid; cases and Librarians and Jenkins be damned. 

“So we’re going to Pittsburg?” Cassandra asked with a slight pout.

“Do we not like Pittsburg?” Jenkins asked before he could stop himself and watched her face fall.

“No. I mean, yes. It’s just, I’ve been there before,” she answered.

“And Pittsburg isn’t very exciting, mate. Can’t we go to somewhere like Milan? Or Venice?” Ezekiel chimed in, cheeky grin already in place. “I have a real craving for pizza.”

“Or Paris?” Cassandra asked, “I’ve always wanted to see Paris in the fall.”

“Well, next time we’ll decide the case by where you want to go,” Eve said as she checked her gun, then slipped it back into its holder and nodded to Jake. “Remember you two—”

“Yeah, yeah. We go to the museum and scope out the security while you and the thief grab the professor,” Jake grumbled and grabbed Cassandra’s hand. 

Then Jenkins heard her gasp, turned in time to see her turn back to them with a grin the size of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower clearly in the distance. He walked over to the doorway and pressed against the firm, invisible force as both Eve and Ezekiel tried step through.

“Oi, why the hell?” Ezekiel yelled, rubbing where his shoulder had slammed into the doorway.

“It appears the Library also wants Cassandra to see Paris,” he replied, only slightly annoyed.

“In fall,” she sung and twirled and he could barely hear her as rain started to pour around her and Jake.

“It looks like you’ll be down a mathematician and art historian,” he said with a smirk, closing the doors and turning back round, “or you can wait until Monday.”

“This is unacceptable,” Eve growled. “The Library can’t just choose where it sends us!”

“It can and it, apparently, has.”

There are only so many times a man can be beaten over the head before he accepts his fate, Jenkins thought, and this was his last blow.

—— 1 ——

“So, you want me to go in here?” Cassandra asks, her hands are tightly clasped and she hesitates again before taking another step. The others aren’t around and this is one of the few times that he and she have been alone together.

“Yes,” Jenkins replies, again.

“Into a room that you’ve never let me in. Into a room whose door you’ve repeatedly told me to not even look at?” she glances from him to the room then back.

“Yes,” Jenkins replies and tries to smile, sometimes he hates the Annex.

“And its safe.” This isn’t a question but he answers ‘yes’ anyway then pushes her into the room. On the other side of the room he can see Jake, wandering and confused. He watches Cassandra fall a few steps then straighten.

“How do we—” Jenkins shuts the door, turns the key and leaves. Leaving them alone.

“How’d you get in here?” Cassandra asks, she turns around in a semicircle looking down one aisle then another, her eyes wide when she finally faces Jake. “And where is here?”

“Jenkins said there was something in here I needed … to see.”

“But we’re not allowed in here,” Cassie replies. It’s new, or new to them, and the room doesn’t show the wear that the rest of the Annex shows. The walls are a mix of golden marble and stained glass, and for a second she wonders where the lights is coming from then remembers it’s the Library — there doesn’t need to be an explanation. 

“Maybe we are now,” Jake says quietly, he reaches out and holds her hand, links their fingers and smiles when she starts to blush. 

“You don’t think Jenkins —“ Cassie starts, then stops herself with a wave of her other hand. “No, that’d be ridiculous.”

“Yeah,” Jake laughs nervously, and she wonders if he was thinking the same thing. That Jenkins is trying to set them up. 

He nods from above them, watches through one of the stained glasses and barely registers that some would call this peeping. He’d maintain that his investment is in the Librarian and (now) the Librarians-in-Training, and the Annex. He straightens, figures that by the time they find the key hidden in plain sight inside the book — Chaucer’s _Parliament of Foules_ — on the table beside them that the Annex will be happy and they can go back to stopping the magic in the world from escaping. 

 

He can only do so much to push two people in the right direction, he wasn’t Cupid after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written in roughly a year (more than!!) -- 2015 I'm trying to do a 52 week challenge. This is the first.
> 
> Any mistakes are my own, any comments and/or criticism are welcome. I do not own The Librarians or any of their characters -- I'm just playing in their sandbox.


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